the reason why Gold, which had a Seed put into it, as well as other creatures, whereby it should be multiplyed, doth not multiply. What the obstruction is, and how it may bee removed, that so it may be digested into the highest purity, and become the true Elixir, or Philosophers stone; the possibility whereof is so plainly illustrated in this book of _Sandivogius_, that let any judicious man read it over without all partiality and prejudice, but three or four times, and he shall _nolens volens_ be convinced of the truth of it, and not only of this, but of many other mysteries as incredible as this. So that if any one should ask me, What one book did most conduce to the knowledge of God and the Creature, and the mysteries thereof; _I_ should speake contrary to my judgment, if I should not, next to the sacred Writ, say _Sandivogius_. All this I speak for thy encouragement, that thou shouldst lay aside other frivolous bookes, and buy this, and read it over, & thou wilt (I question not) thank mee for my advice. And as this booke doth in generall, so the second of these Treatises doth in particular illustrate the possibility of Nature, and the mysteries thereof, as also the nature and manner of the Generation, Growth, Conservation, Life, Death, Renewing, Transmutations, Separations, and Signatures of all naturall things, in the explication of which many rare experiments and excellent mysteries are discovered and found out. To these is added a Chymical Dictionary, explaining hard places, and words met withall in obscure Authors. But this, and the other I speak more sparingly in the commendations of, because if read they will speak more for them selves then I can speak for them: only _I_ was willing for the _English_ nations sake, whose spirits are much drawn forth after knowledge, to translate them into the _English_ tongue. _I_ did not doe it to multiply books, (for there are too many books already; and the multitude of them is the greatest cause of our ignorance, and in them is a great vanity) but to let thee see the light of Nature, by which thou maist judg of truths, and the better conceive of the God of Nature, of whom all naturall things are full, and whose goings forth in the way of Nature are most wonderfull, even to the conviction of the greatest Atheists. _Courteous Reader_, thou must excuse me for not affecting elegancies in these Translations, for if I were skilled in them, yet the matter of the books would not bear them. If I have sometimes used uncouth words, it was because the sense, to which _I_ kept me close, would not properly bear any other, or at least better came not at the present into my mind. If any _Errata’s_ have passed through the slips of my pen, or the _Printers_ mistake, be thou candid, and mend them. If thou shalt not approve of what _I_ have done, convince mee of my errour by doing better; for thereby thou shalt oblige the lovers of truth, and amongst the rest, thy friend